An interactive computer simulation system performs one or more interactive computer simulations. Each interactive computer simulation comprises one or more virtual simulated elements each representing an actual system (e.g., multiple virtual aircraft systems each representing an actual aircraft). Each interactive computer simulation provides a virtual computer generated environment and various tangible instruments (or controls) in a simulation station to allow enactment of different scenarios for the purpose of training one or more users (or trainees), using one or more of the virtual simulated elements, in the operation and/or understanding of the corresponding one or more actual systems. The virtual simulated element, or simulated element, is defined herein as a simulated system. The simulated element is a virtual version that simulates, to the extent required by the interactive computer simulation, behavior of an actual system. The various tangible instruments accessible to the one or more users in the simulation station replicate actual instruments or otherwise reproduce behavior of the actual instruments found in the actual system.
In certain circumstances, the interactive computer simulation is used to develop and/or measure skills of the trainees in relation to specific benchmarks. By way of example, a Detection-Orientation-Range-Identification (DORI) benchmark has been developed in relation to a trainee's ability to detect and qualify a target within a virtual scene in a flight simulator. The DORI benchmark is particularly useful in air-to-air combat pilot training. It is one example of benchmarks that are based on visual acuity of the trainee. The benchmark is one of different elements of the training that takes place in the interactive computer simulation from within the simulation station. The benchmark is meant to provide a correlation between a trainee's ability as measured and developed in the interactive computer simulation and the actual trainee's ability in the actual systems.
Unfortunately, physical limitations of the simulation station (e.g., image resolution, brightness and/or contrast) lead to benchmark results that are difficult to reliably correlate to actual abilities. The present invention at least partially addresses this concern.